The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-16
AN INFIDEL LESSON.
A Common Sense View Of the
Scriptures.
THE SWALLOWING OF JONAH.
:. Z. Atwood's Idea of How the Great
Fish Took in and Vomited
the Ancient Prophet.

ho'o OuI AIIe Ut NC reverence Tor the
Bible, that it is like q fiddle-any tune
can be played upon it, therefore it can
not be a reliable book.
am willing to admit that the Bible
can consistently be compared to a I'D
die, but NOT in the way it is understood
by the class of persons above men
toned.
There is as much difference between
one who understands the Bible and one
who does not, as there is between one
who knows how to play the fiddle and
one who does not. If a pc son under
stands the key notes. or in other words,
the language, comparisons, causes and
effects, and the general circumstances
connected with what is recorded there
IN, he can make it chord and harmonic
IN every part and the confictions, mis-
understandings, and confusion in re-
gard to 1t would no longer exist; but in
the hands of one unacquainted with the
circumstances and conditions and how
to properly connect them, it is then like
fiddle in the hands of an inexperi-
enced player, the discord will continue
and the book remain unreliable.
There are quite number of
passages of Scripture that appear to be
impossible, unreasonable and incon-
sistent, which would, if they were prop
erly understood, be clear and compre-
hensiye and on natural principles, and
thus much of the existing inidelity
would cease to be, and the Bible
would become what it was designed to
be-the worl of the Lord unto the chill
dren of men.
Que portion of the Bible, which is
undoubtedly the cause of much infidel-
ity l will explain, and, although my ex-
PLANTATION, if it may differ materially
from the general opinion, still it is in
keeping with the record made of it. 1t
appears, that the Lord commissioned
Jonah to declare q prophesy unto the
inhabitants of Nineveh, from the per-
Torrance of which he thought to escape
by fleeing into another country The
Lord, however, did not design that he
should escape so easily, for He "sent
out great wind into the sea and there
was mighty tempest" so that the
seamen becoming frightened cast Jonah
overheard to save themselves and the
ship from being swallowed up in the
angry sea.
Now the Lord had prepared
great fish to swallow up Jonah, and
Jonah was in the belly OF the fish three
days and three nights" Jonah LII.
If the great fish had been prepared to
swallow Jonah, as is generally sup
posed that he did, the record would
have said so, but it says Ito swallow
up Jonah" According to Webster to
swallow up has quite different mean
ing to swallow. To swallow anything
means for il to pass down the throat,
m fn
TO be taken in through an opening, as
at one time when Korah rebeIled
against Moses 1000 of the children of
Israel were swallowed up in an opening
of the earth, Mum. 1872 Were the
earth to open and take in Salt Lake
City to-day, it would be recorded that
the earth swallowed up the city. Milton
also gives the same definition of sWaI-
low up.
In boys swallowed up and lost
But the question arises, how did the
Lord prepare the fish to swallow up
Jonah. This is not explained in the
Scriptures, but there are many ways
in which he might have done 1t. We
might suppose on natural prin-
ciples that the fish was a dead one and
hoated on the surface of the water as a
dead fish would do, and the Lord pre-
pared the way for it to be in close
proximity to the ship when Jonah was
cast overheard, that he might be swaI-
lowed up through some opening in its
surface to the inside. where he could
dwell in safety for three days and three
nights" for the sea had ceased its
raging. In there he could easily remain,
live and breathe as safely as if he had
been in one of our modern steamships
n 1rvh
out of the belly of hell as he terms it,
he could not extricate himself, but must
remain until the Lord spoke to the fish
mot to its intelligence necessarily, but
as Jesus said: ''If We have faith as a
grain OF mustard seed. ye shall say unto
this mountain, Remove hence 10 yonder
place and 1t shall remove" In like
the Lord could speak to the fish
and cause it, though dead, to move to
the shore IN such a manner as to ''Vomit
out Jonah upon the dry land"-not
the mouth. or it would have
said "vomit mp Jonah onto dry land"
Here again We have a difference
in the meaning of the words. Accord
cording to Webster TO vomit out means
really to throw out of hollow place
through any opening, and to vomit up
means to come out Of the mouth, and
OHdu uO UOuDI was VOhlI6O out
through the same opening through
which he was swallowed up"
1t is evident that Jonah was not swal-
lowed by the fish, but was swallowed
up, and that he was not vomited up, but
Yomited out. This gives a plain, con-
sistent, and reasonable understanding
Of the facts as they really transpired,
and does not detract in the least from
the manifest workings of the Lord in it
all, for we are told that He caused the
tempest to rage" until the men cast
Jonah overheard, and that He pre-
pared the great fish to swallow up
Jonah and to yomit him out again onto
the dry land" that he might accom-
plish the mission which he was sent to
perform by the Lord.
This view of the subject is also in
keeping with the words of the Prophet
Joseph Smith, that the Lord per-
forms all His works on natural
principles, which could not be
so in this case if the fish
swallowed Jonah for then the
avs OF nature would have been
changed both in him and in the fish.
There is no idle, technical play upon
words, but the meaning of them as re-
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